Now a concerned entrepreneur opened his wallet to disagreeable-looking people with a dating site for the "aesthetically challenged." Howard James, founder of The Ugly Bug Ball, says he's providing dowdy British singles with a legitimate service. "We're scooping up these people and offering them a glimmer of hope," he said, "in many cases their first and only opportunity of meeting a member of the opposite sex."

I wouldn't take him too seriously, though. The tone on The Ugly Bug Ball is definitely flippant and probably half-joking. It woos people over to the homely side with copy like this: "Once with an ugly partner it is unlikely that anyone will try and take them from you meaning you can let yourself go completely once you’re together."

I flipped through a few pages of these so-called ugly people, and I'd say the majority were average looking, some were even pretty, and a few were, well, the other option. What the site really seems to attract is the shared experience of feeling ugly — a Liz Lemon complex characterized by self-deprecation, humbleness, and humor — and a lot of people find that attractive.